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Unfortunately, today is the last day of a much needed February Break. After having 4 midterms in one week, I could not wait for this break! I spent half of the break back home in Philly and the other half back in Lexington. It was a great mixture of relaxation and fun with friends. I split my time amongst catching up on much needed sleep, watching Netflix, eating yummy food at home, working out, and catching up with friends. My mom even came down to visit me in Lexington for the end of break as well which was awesome. I love when my parents come into town because that is a guaranteed delicious meal (or two or three meals) out in town!

Although I am bummed that break is ending, I could not be more excited that spring season begins TOMORROW!!! I cannot wait to get back on the court with my teammates and coaches. Spring season is always a blast, and it is exciting to see everyone improve so much in such a short amount of time. This is when we all see our hard work during lifts and conditioning start to pay off.

SO…. As Vicky already said yesterday was her b-day!!! She is now older and wiser which will probably result in her being even more sassy than she was before…. love ya vick. Yesterday me and Petey took her to Charlottesville to get out of the lovely LexVegas for a pedicure and a movie!! It was so much fun to get out of Lexington for a little bit. Living on the W&L campus is definitely more of a small town feel, so sometimes its nice to make the hour drive to escape to a big city (with a mall, chipotle, chick-fil-a, you name it). So we had a very nice Galentines day in Cville.

As vicky also said we spent the day at the ASPCA today. It was so fun to see all the adorable puppies and kittys. However, dog walking was quite the struggle for me as I got a few rowdy pups that pretty much dragged me around and chased me. But, it was so great to spend a day with the team it reminded me of being back in season. It seems like just yesterday it was fall season and now we are about to start spring season! Our open gyms have been getting me so excited for when we get back and officially start spring season.

Since I can’t fully participate yet after my shoulder surgery back in November (fingers crossed the doctor will clear me to play over feb break) me and Mansie (who is also injured) have been watching open gyms. It’s so crazy how much you notice just watching your teammates play and the amount of technical things you notice so much more clearly. I truly have learned so much from Mansie and admire how dedicated she has been to the team these past few months while she has been out with her injury. I think I can speak for her when I say that the entire team has just made me feel so loved and cared for since my injury and I honestly can’t imagine getting through it without them. They are always looking out for me and are the absolute best. I just love how dedicated each and everyone of our teammates is and even if I am playing or sitting on the sidelines I cannot wait for this spring season to start and see what this team can do!! Hope everyone has a safe and fun break and that everyone had an amazing V-day!!

P.S. here are some pics of me drugged up after surgery, and then some more pics of puppies cause like yeah, and a pic of me wearing the pedicure shoes to Starbucks… people judged but whatevaaa

So, yesterday was my birthday! (yes, it’s on Valentine’s Day) It was super weird being away from home on my birthday. Luckily, our team rocks and made sure I had a good birthday and that I wasn’t sad! On Friday night, Elena and Petey surprised me by taking me out to dinner! On Saturday, Sam, Petey, and I, along with a few other friends, went to Charlottesville and spent the afternoon there. The entire team just really made me feel loved on my birthday, and it wasn’t as hard being away from home as I thought it would be. Excuse my sappiness for a second here and let me say that they really are like a second family to me and I couldn’t imagine not having them in my life.

Today, the whole team volunteered at the local animal shelter. We split into three groups: dog washers, dog walkers, and cat socializers. Kenzie, Kasey, and I washed puppies for most of the time, so as you can imagine it was adorable.

It’s also crazy to think that next weekend is Feb Break, where we have a week off! Time is flying, and I can’t believe my freshman year is almost over!!!

I’m writing to y’all from super sunny (JK LOL) Edinburgh, Scotland! I’m studying abroad here for both winter and spring terms! I got here about a week ago and I can’t describe how wonderful this country is! The scenery, the campus, and the people are all amazing and I feel so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to spend an entire 5 months here (even if the weather is cold and rainy everyday). I’m taking some different classes than I normally would be back at W&L- Intro to Gaelic, Scottish History since 1914, Social and Cognitive Development of Children, and Psychology of Language. the psyc classes I’m taking are pretty standard (since I’m a major) but the 2 culture classes I am in are so unique and awesome! Even though Gaelic is a mostly dead language (only 60,000 people still speak it worldwide!) learning the language and the culture of the people is SO cool. Here is some gaelic for ya: ‘S e mise Anna, cò thusa? Ciamar a tha thu? Also, none of that is pronounced the way it is spelt so I’m not even going to try and explain how you would actually say it LOL. I’m here through a program called IFSA-Butler and there are about 45 of us on the program and most are from other smaller liberal arts schools as well. I’ve met some really awesome people and have tried a lot of awesome whiskey and haggis! For those of you who don’t know what haggis is, it’s a combination of sheep heart, liver, and lungs as well as oatmeal. Sounds so yummy right?!?! I was a good sport and tried it and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. If you try and completely forget what exactly you are eating it kind of just tastes like a softer sausage.

Although Scotland has been awesome thus far, I’m missing the team, and school in general, like crazy! It’s weird to think that I won’t be able to see anyone for 5 months and I still don’t think it’s sunk in yet. Offseason will begin in the coming months as well and that is such a fun and awesome bonding experience for the team. It’s a great time to spend a lot of time together working out and planning open gyms. Rush for all the various sororities begins tonight as well and I’m also sad about missing that. All of the freshmen are participating and I know that they will love every second of it and I can’t wait to hear all about it!

Lok at all these kewl pics of this foreign land

^This is the park and church that is right across from my flat!

^This is the view from my hotel during orientation. The huge castle on top of the hill is the famous Edinburgh Castle. It was built in 1100s!

^This is a view of New Town, which is the newer part of Edinburgh right on the coast!

I hope all of you are having a great and restful break from school. I know I haven’t left my couch in the last 24 hours, but hey, we all deserve a break right? Since Christmas was just a few days ago, I’m still in the holiday spirit, and I had a great Christmas this year. I went right from school to Orlando, Florida to spend the holidays with my sister, who works as a marine biologist at Epcot. My parents joined us the next day and we spent a few days together; the first time all four of us have been together since May!

We spent an afternoon walking around the littile town my sister, Kate, lives in and looking at all the Christmas decorations.

It was weird, spending Christmas in 80 degree weather when im used to a very white Christmas, but I didn’t mind. On Christmas Eve, we had a few of my sisters friends over for dinner and cooked a big Christmas meal in our condo. I wore an ugly sweater and made way too many Christmas cookies. I got back on Thursday morning, thankfully to a balmy 55 degrees, and we had dinner and did Christmas with all my aunts and uncles, It was pretty crazy cause my mom is one of 11 siblings, but dinner with them is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

As the fall finals week approaches and fall term comes to an end, everyone is slammed with papers and tests and such, but only a week and a half left and we will be home for almost a full month for Christmas break! Its unbelievable how fast this term has gone by, and looking back on it, I can definitely say I have had the best 4 months of my life. I have learned so much and have met so many amazing people (mostly my teammates…#duh). This past weekend was Christmas Weekend, which was especially fun! It was basically 2 nights of Christmas themed parties full of festive outfits, songs, decorations etc. It really got everyone in the Christmas spirit, and now my hall is going to go to Walmart to get a Christmas tree and lights to put in our common room. As nice as it will be to be home, I am very excited for Winter Term because that means we get to start off season training! I have heard so much about the off-season, and I am pumped for my first max lift (even though I don’t even totally know what that means). I miss seeing all the volley girls every day, but our GroupMe is constantly active, so I still feel very in touch with everyone’s lives :) I hope everyone survives finals week and has a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

LUV,

Mary

P.S. I don’t have any cool pics of anything relevant to this blog, so I am attaching one of Vicky and me hiking Devil’s Marble Yard last month… It was quite the adventure, and I was totally obsessed with all the fall leaves (I’m from Florida, and we just have green leaves year round)… LOL enjoy

So sad to say our season ended last weekend in NCAA Regional Quarterfinal. However, we accomplished so many things this past season and met many of our goals. Today was the first day we didn’t have practice, and I honestly have no idea what to do with myself. I have SO much free time. I already miss our long, awkward, and hard working practices! Also, it is super weird not seeing everyone every single day. It makes me even more motivated for off season training.

On a brighter note, Thanksgiving break is only five days away! I can’t wait to go home and spend time with family! Not to mention that I will be stuffing my face with homemade food which will be a nice change from DHall. I am even more excited to cuddle up with my pets! I think we can all agree we have missed our pets dearly over the past three months. Anyway, I am looking forward to visiting home and actually being able to stay for an extended amount of time.